Stupid moments on the cricket field.

Winning the toss and bowling against Australia on a batter's paradise like the WACA at this time of the season and ending up with 735 against the opposition's name and the world record score in a Test match to an individual player.

Sreesanth said, "Next ball he was beaten and I said, 'is this the King Charles Lara? Who is this impostor, moving around nervously? I should have kept my mouth shut for the next ball - mind you, it was a length ball - Lara just pulled it over the church beyond the boundary! He is a true legend."

Basically Streak had 2 options - commit suicide and bat in conditions Gillespie and possibly Bichel would have torn his side apart in, or bowl and hope his bowlers might manage to exploit what was there.
Exactly the same as last year; Stephen Waugh said he would have batted. That is all there is to it for me. Waugh knows the wickets inside out. In both cases, to field first was the right decision IMO. McGrath and Gillespie would have torn England apart at The 'Gabba in all likelihood, and Hussain hoped his bowlers might be able to do the same.
Ganguly's attack was good in the World Cup and he bowled first to try and restrict Australia. It was a logical enough decision; especially if you have a batting-line-up as good as India's, to chase is easier than to set. Unfortunately for Ganguly, his attack let him down.
As for Tony Greig's comments, stupid, and Donald and Pollock's respective miscalculations - heartbreaking. Even for an Englishman.

Originally posted by Richard Basically Streak had 2 options - commit suicide and bat in conditions Gillespie and possibly Bichel would have torn his side apart in, or bowl and hope his bowlers might manage to exploit what was there.

Beat me to it!

I watched the some of the live coverage and 9 hours worth of highlights and throughout the commentary have been saying H Streak read this pitch perfectly... it's doing excatly what he said it would at the toss.

The only reason it looks a bad decision was he doesn't have good enough bolwers to do any damage... if it had been any other side in the world, there was the perfect conditions on Day 1 to get movement and get into the heart of the Aussie batting line up.

Basically Streak had 2 options - commit suicide and bat in conditions Gillespie and possibly Bichel would have torn his side apart in, or bowl and hope his bowlers might manage to exploit what was there.

See, I disagree that they would have been comitting suicide. All the movement was in the air, not off the deck. The deck was a perfect batting wicket. Even then, the movement was very little and I would have thought Streak could have seen that or at least been advised of that. Althought I don't think the Zimbabweans would have threatened anyway, they would have made things a little difficult for the Aussies had the batted first because most oftheir top-order can hang around.

I watched the some of the live coverage and 9 hours worth of highlights and throughout the commentary have been saying H Streak read this pitch perfectly... it's doing excatly what he said it would at the toss.

The only reason it looks a bad decision was he doesn't have good enough bolwers to do any damage... if it had been any other side in the world, there was the perfect conditions on Day 1 to get movement and get into the heart of the Aussie batting line up.

I don't know about that. There may have been a little movement around on day 1 but I can tell you it had nothing to do with the pitch. And even then, the movement was minimal. Even more skilled bowlers would have struggled to take wickets because that deck was a road.

Unless the pitch it wet and/or a seasming minefield, one should consider batting first I believe. You can then set the tone and in general, batting first allows you to do that better. Even if Heath Streak thought the pitch was going to do something, he surely should have thought that any movement would disappear quickly (as it did).

As for stupid moments, I would say Steve Waugh's decision to make India follow on in 2001 would rate highly. Considering the rather warm condition and that the next Test was to be played quite soon after that one, I would have batted again and batted India out of the match. Instead he sent them in again and Laxman made the rest history, really.